The question whether there
is a life after death does not fall under the jurisdiction of science,
as science is concerned only with classification and analysis of data.
Moreover, man has been busy with scientific inquiries and research, in
the modern sense of the term, only for the last few centuries, while he
has been familiar with the concept of life after death since times immemorial.
All the prophets of God called their people to worship God and to believe
in life after death. They laid so much emphasis on the belief in life after
death that even a slight doubt in it meant denying God and made all other
beliefs meaningless. The very fact that all the prophets of God have dealt
with this metaphysical question of life after death so confidently and
so uniformly - the gap between their ages being thousands of years - goes
to prove that the source of their knowledge of life after death as proclaimed
by them all, was the same, i.e., Divine revelation. We also know that these
prophets of God were greatly opposed by their people, mainly on the issue
of life after death, as their people thought it impossible. But in spite
of opposition, the prophets won many sincere followers.

The question arises: what made those
followers forsake the established beliefs, traditions and customs of their
forefathers, notwithstanding the risk of being totally alienated from their
own community? The simple answer is: they made use of their faculties of
mind and heart and realized the truth. Did they realize the truth through
perceptual consciousness? Not so, as perceptual experience of life after
death is impossible.

Actually, God has given man, besides
perceptual consciousness, rational, aesthetic and moral consciousness too.
It is this consciousness that guides man regarding realities that cannot
be verified through sensory data. That is why all the prophets of God while
calling people to believe in God and life after death, appeal to the aesthetic,
moral and rational consciousness of man.

For example, when the idolaters of
Makkah denied even the possibility of life after death, the Quran exposed
the weakness of their stand by advancing very logical and rational arguments
in support of it: "And he has coined for us a similitude, and has forgotten
the fact of his creation, saying: who will revive these bones when they
have rotted away? Say: He will revive them Who produced them at first,
for He is the Knower of every creation, Who has appointed for you fire
from the green tree, and behold! you kindle from it. Is not He Who created
the heavens and the earth, able to create the like of them? Yes, and He
is indeed the Supreme Creator, the All-Knowing." (36:78-81)

At another occasion, the Quran very
clearly says that the disbelievers have no sound basis for their denial
of life after death. It is based on pure conjecture: "They say, 'There
is nothing but our present life; we die, and we live, and nothing but Time
destroys us.' Of that they have no knowledge; they merely conjecture. And
when our revelations are recited to them, their only argument is that they
say, 'Bring us our fathers, if you speak truly.' (45:24-25)

Surely God will raise all the dead.
But God has His own plan of things. A day will come when the whole universe
will be destroyed and then again the dead will be resurrected to stand
before God. That day will be the beginning of the life that will never
end, and that Day every person will be rewarded by God according to his
or her good or evil deed.

The explanation that the Quran gives
about the necessity of life after death is what the moral consciousness
of man demands. Actually, if there is no life after death, the very belief
in God becomes irrelevant, or even if one believes in God, that would be
an unjust and indifferent God: having once created man and not concerned
with his fate. Surely, God is just. He will punish the tyrants whose crimes
are beyond count: having killed hundreds of innocent persons, created great
corruptions in the society, enslaved numerous persons to serve their whims,
etc. Man's having a very short span of life in this world, and this physical
world's too being not eternal, punishments or rewards equal to the evil
or noble deeds of persons are not possible here.

The Quran very emphatically states
that the Day of Judgment must come and God will decide about the fate of
each soul according to his or her record of deeds: "Those who disbelieve
say: The Hour will never come unto us. Say: Nay, by my Lord, but it is
coming unto you surely. (He is) the Knower of the Unseen. Not an atom's
weight, or less than that or greater, escapes Him in the heavens or in
the earth, but it is in a clear Record. That He may reward those who believe
and do good words. For them is pardon and a rich provision. But those who
strive against our revelations, challenging (Us), theirs will be a painful
doom of wrath." (34:3-5)

The Day of Resurrection will be the
Day when God's attributes of Justice and Mercy will be in full manifestation.
God will shower His Mercy on those who suffered for His sake in the worldly
life, believing that an eternal bliss was awaiting them. But those who
abused the bounties of God, caring nothing for the life to come, will be
in the most miserable state.

Drawing a comparison between them,
the Quran says: "Is he, then, to whom We have promised a goodly promise
the fulfillment of which he will meet, like the one whom We have provided
with the good things of this life, and then on the Day of Resurrection
he will be of those who will be brought arraigned before God?" (28:61)

The Quran also states that this worldly
life is a preparation for the eternal life after death. But those who deny
it become slaves of their passions and desires, make fun of virtuous and
God-conscious persons. Such persons realize their folly only at the time
of their death and wish to be given a further chance in the world but in
vain. Their miserable state at the time of death, and the horror of the
Day of Judgment, and the eternal bliss guaranteed to the sincere believers
are very beautifully mentioned in the following verses of the Holy Quran:

"Until, when death comes unto
one of them, he says, 'My Lord send me back, that I may do right in that
which I have left behind! But nay! It is but a word that he speaks; and
behind them is a barrier until the day when they are raised. And when the
Trumpet is blown there will be no kinship among them that day, nor will
they ask of one another. Then those whose scales are heavy, they are successful.
And those whose scales are light are those who lose their souls, in hell
abiding, the fire burns their faces and they are glum therein." (23:99-104)

The belief in life after death not
only guarantees success in the Hereafter but also makes this world full
of peace and happiness by making individuals most responsible and dutiful
in their activities.

Think of the people of Arabia. Gambling,
wine, tribal feuds, plundering and murdering were their main traits when
they had no belief in life after death. But as soon as they accepted the
belief in One God and life after death they became the most disciplined
nation of the world. They gave up their vices, helped each other in hours
of need, and settled all their disputes on the basis of justice and equality.

Similarly the denial of life after
death has its consequences not only in the Hereafter but also in this world.
When a nation as a whole denies it, all kinds of evils and corruptions
become rampant in that society and ultimately it is destroyed. The Quran
mentions the terrible end of 'Aad, Thamud and the Pharaoh in some detail:
"(The tribes of) Thamud and 'Aad disbelieved in the judgment to come. As
for Thamud, they were destroyed by the lightning, and as for 'Aad, they
were destroyed by a fierce roaring wind, which He imposed on them for seven
long nights and eight long days so that you might see the people laid prostrate
in it as if they were the stumps of fallen down palm trees. "Now do you
see remnant of them?

Pharaoh likewise and those before
him and the subverted cities. They committed errors and those before him,
and they rebelled against the Messenger of their Lord, and He seized them
with a surpassing grip. Lo, when the waters rose, We bore you in the running
ship that We might make it a reminder for you and for heeding ears to hold.
So when the Trumpet is blown with a single blast and the earth and the
mountains are lifted up and crushed with a single blow, then on that day,
the Terror shall come to pass, and the heaven shall be split for upon that
day it will be very frail. Then as for him who is given his book in his
right hand, he shall say, 'Here take and read my book! Certainly I thought
I should encounter my reckoning.' So he shall be in a pleasing life in
a lofty garden, its clusters nigh to gather. "'Eat and drink with wholesome
appetite for that you did long ago, in the days gone by.' "But as for him
who is given his book in his left hand, he shall say: 'Would that I had
not been given my book and not known my reckoning! Would that it had been
the end! My wealth has not availed me, my authority is gone from me.'"
(69:4-29)

Thus, there are very convincing reasons
to believe in life after death.

- First,
all the prophets of God have called their people to believe in it.

- Secondly,
whenever a human society is built on the basis of this belief, it has been
the most ideal and peaceful society, free of social and moral evils.

- Thirdly,
history bears witness that whenever this belief is rejected collectively
by a group of people in spite of the repeated warning of the Prophet, the
group as a whole has been punished by God even in this world.

-Fourthly,
moral, aesthetic and rational faculties of man endorse the possibility
of life after death.

- Fifthly,
God's attributes of Justice and Mercy have no meaning if there is no life
after death.